In order to form color photographic images, a photographic material having three kinds of photographic color couplers, i.e., yellow, magenta and cyan couplers incorporated in light-sensitive layers thereof is imagewise exposed and then processed with a color developing solution containing a color developing agent. In this process, the couplers react with the oxidation products of aromatic primary amine developing agents to yield colored dyes.
In general, the standard steps for processing silver halide color photographic materials are composed of a color development step for forming color images, a desilvering step for removing developed silver and undeveloped silver, and a water washing step and/or an image stabilizing step.
The art has sought a reduction in processing time for the photographic materials. Recently, however, the necessity for shortening this processing time has become more important because of requirements relating to a reduction in the period to finish, a simplification of the laboratory work, and the miniaturization and simple operations associated with the processing systems for small scale laboratories, i.e., "mini-labs".
A reduction in the processing time for the color development step can be achieved by using a coupler having as high a coupling speed as possible, using a silver halide emulsion having a high developing speed, using a color developing solution having a high developing speed, using a color developing solution of high temperature or any appropriate combination thereof.
On the other hand, the reduction of processing time for the desilvering step can be obtained by decreasing the pH of the bleaching solution or bleach-fixing solution. For example, The Theory of the Photographic Process, Chapter 15E, Bleach-Fix System discloses that the bleach-fixing speed increases upon lowering of the pH of the bleach-fixing solution.
However, although a reduction in the pH of the bleach-fixing solution is effective in increasing the bleaching speed, it also causes leuco-body formation of the cyan dye formed from cyan coupler and results in decrease in density because the leuco-body does not turn into the colored form at the completion of the processing. This phenomenon is hereafter referred to as "inferior recoloring". Due to gradual recoloring of cyan dye after the processing, the color balance is lost thereby deteriorating the image quality.
In order to solve this problem, there is a method wherein after color development, the photographic material is washed with water to remove the developing agent before the bleach-fixing step is conducted. However, this method is disadvantageous because of the increase in the number of processing steps employed as well as the total processing time.
Another method wherein a water-soluble ionic compound containing a polyvalent element is added to the bleach-fixing bath is proposed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,510. This method, however, introduces problems associated with environmental pollution. Further, the desired object is not fully achieved.
On the other hand, it is also known to employ hydroquinones or quinones for the purpose of control of gradation, prevention of fog, and prevention of color fading of magenta dye. See, for example, JP-A-55-161238 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), JP-A-60 60647, JP-A-53-32034 (corresponding to German Patent Application (OLS) No. 2639930), OLS Nos. 2,149,789 and 3,320,483Al, JP-A-58-24141, JP-A-46-2128 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,453), JP-B-43-4934 (the term "JP B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), JP-B-50-21249, JP-B-60-3I71, JP-A-49-106329, JP-A-49-129535, British Patent 1,465,081, JP-A-49-129536, JP-A-49-134327, JP-A-50-110337, JP-A-50-156438, JP-A-51-6024, JP-A-51-9828, JP-A-51-14023, JP-A-52-65432, JP-A-52-128130, JP-A-52-146234, JP-A-52-146235, JP-A-53-9528, JP-A-53-55121, JP-A-53- 139533, JP-A-54-24019, JP-A-54-25823, JP-A-54-29637, JP-A-54-70036, JP-A-54-97021 (corresponding to OLS No. 2901520), JP-A54-133181, JP-A-55-95948, JP-A-56-5543, JP-A-56-83742, JP-A-56-85748, JP-A-56-87040, JP-A-56-153342, JP-A-57-112749, JP-A-57-176038, JP-A-58-136030, JP-A-59-72443, JP-A-59-75249, JP-A-59-83162, JP-A-59-101650, JP-A-59-180557, JP-A-60-60647, JP-A-59-189342, JP-A-59-191031, JP-A-60-55339, JP-A-60-263149, Research Disclosure, No. 228-7 (1983), U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,384,658, 2,403,721, 2,728,659, 2,735,765, 3,700,453, 2,675,314, 2,732,300 and 2,360,290. In particular, fog prevention by incorporating hydroquinones substituted with an electron withdrawing group into an intermediate layer is described in JP-B-59-35012, JP-A-56-109344 and JP-A-57-2237. However, these documents do not discuss the problems associated with inferior recoloring.
It is known that the addition of such hydroquinones tends to cause the inferior recoloring when a bleach-fixing solution of relatively high pH and which is contaminated with a color developing solution is employed. Therefore, it has been proposed to reduce the amount of hydroquinones employed. See, for example, JP-A-60-60647.
In JP-A-63-316857, alkyl-substituted hydroquinone or quinones are employed to prevent the inferior recoloring which occurs upon processing with a bleachfixing solution having a low pH (not higher than 6.3). Although the desired effect is obtained to some extent, further improvement is nonetheless desired. Moreover, another problem has recently been encountered in that the cyan color image is degraded when the processed photographic material is exposed during storage to irradiation of very high illuminance.